Sociala identiteter i seriösa fritidsaktiviteter : - om samspelen mellan seriösa fritidsaktiviteter, platser, sociala världar och konsumtionsföremål i downhillcykling

Sammanfattning: Background This study is about social identity processes within downhill mountain biking. Downhill is portrayed as reflecting the development of consumer culture in today’s society. The development is characterized by the increasing importance of consumption, and social institutions, such as class, family and education, which previously provided individuals with sense of belonging, identity and norms, that are dissolving. Instead, leisure activities offer individuals opportunities to construct social identities. Social identities are defined as the part of the individuals’ identity, which is constructed in interaction with the social categories (identity dimensions) that the he or she belongs to. Four different identity dimensions were considered particularly relevant; serious leisure, places, social worlds and consumer goods. The following main question was raised: How are social identities constructed in interaction with serious leisure, places, social worlds and consumer goods? Method Constructionist grounded theory was used to collect, present, interpret and analyze the empirical information. The empirical study was conducted by active participation in downhill mountain biking (2004-2006) and 38 interviews with mountain bikers in Whistler (Canada) and Åre (Sweden). Results A grounded theory was gradually generated from empirical interpretations into a model of how social identities are constructed in serious leisure activities. The model presents four types of serious leisure participants; new beginners, experienced participants, non-active participants and non-participants. The model is also showing three main groups of sub processes; experience and norm processes, behavioral, physical and verbal identity expressions and the processes of personal investments and benefits. The model also shows three different phases (trial phase, construction/reconstruction phase and disengagement phase) in the participants’ identity processes. Conclusions The participants construct social identities in interaction with the identity dimensions serious leisure, places, social worlds and consumer goods through the processes of experience development, boundary work, leisure career, imitation, norm processes, personal investments and benefits, and behavioral, physical and verbal identity expressions. The participants’ identity processes are dynamic, where the personal investments and benefits of the participants are creating movements between the more stable identity phases formed by the experience- and norm processes, and the different identity expressions.